Frozen Desires (Asylums for Magical Threats) (30 page)

children sitting around a table, drawing pictures. They all looked to be between the ages of five and ten.

“Are those some of the children?”

“Yes. This is group 5A.”

He wondered if the children were raised with serial numbers from birth, but now wasn’t the time to ask

that question. “How do you raise the children? Are they brought here as infants?”

Yang replied, “They’re moved to this facility at eight weeks of age. We have a special wing for the

infants, but once they’re two years old, they’re transferred into a room with other children. The interaction with others their age helps keep them preoccupied. They’re also allowed to play, draw, sing, or any other

number of harmless hobbies.”

“But what about social interaction with adults? Or an education?”

Wallace gave him a strange look. “An education is the last thing we want to give them, or they’d start

asking questions. We treat them well, but we do what we think is best for them.”

It took everything he had to keep from reacting to Wallace’s words. “Who decides their activities or

their upbringing?”

Yang answered, “The AMT Oversight Committee.”

Gio had never given much thought to the Oversight Committee, but after the number of times they’d

been mentioned today, he was going to have to look into it.

Yang closed the window screen and motioned toward the door. “Most of this wing is a collection of

rooms like the one you just saw. We’ll visit one of the research rooms, and then Xu will return to take you back to your quarters.”

As Gio followed the two researchers down the hall, he braced himself for what he might see. The

researchers had been less than ethical with the adults, and he truly hoped they did better with the children.

Yang and Wallace opened another room by pressing their thumbs onto a scanner. Gio took a deep breath

and walked inside.

The two-way mirror didn’t have a screen this time. It looked into a sterile exam room, similar to the one

back in Scotland he’d used to interrogate Millie Ward. Instead of an adult, however, there was an

unconscious child strapped to a metal table in the center of the room.

One scientist was standing next to the table, injecting a syringe into a young boy who looked to be about

twelve years old. Even if he was a first-born—which didn’t seem to matter in this facility—there were some things that shouldn’t be done.

Experimenting on children was one of them.

While he wanted to charge in and release the child, the action would accomplish nothing. He needed

information if he was ever to have a chance of freeing the children. Gio kept his voice calm and asked,

“What experiment are they running here?”

“The boy is a first-born on the cusp of magical maturity. We’re trying an antibody serum, developed

from the chemical lining of a young woman’s uterus. Our hope is to prevent him from feeling elemental particles in the air, and thus nullifying his abilities.”

He surprised even himself when his voice came out devoid of emotion. “Was there anything special

about the young woman they used to make the serum?”

Wallace shook his head. “Other than the fact she was sterilized to preserve the chemicals in her uterus,

no, there was nothing special with the young woman.”

They were sterilizing children now? Gio couldn’t believe how these two talked about living, breathing

Feiru
as if they were nothing more than lab mice.

Now, a much bigger goal was forming in the back of his mind, and he forced down his anger. “Dr.

Yang, Dr. Wallace, thank you for showing me around. But I need to be heading back so that I can confer

with my colleague.”

“Of course,” Yang said. “We’ll take you back to the entrance of this wing, and Xu can show you back to

your room. If you have any more questions, just call one of us and ask.”

“Thank you.”

As they led him back down the hallway, Gio hoped that Evans had put together a docile enough list of

latent abilities to appease Liang. While Gio had seen a few abuses today already, he wanted to dig deeper.

He needed to gather evidence if he ever wanted the chance to change the things he’d seen today. He also

needed to see how much his father knew about this because if James Sinclair supported the actions they

were conducting on the children here, Gio was going to have to reevaluate his goals and figure out how to

deal with his father.

Chapter Thirty-Six

After a number of buses and several plane transfers, Marco was finally on the last plane that would take

him, Cam, and her team to Quito International Airport in Ecuador. As their plane left Panama City behind—

the place of their final layover—Marco took a good look at Cam and tried not to frown.

She did better on planes and buses than on boats, but he could tell all of this flying was getting to her.

She looked pale and had refused to eat much of anything over the last twelve hours.

Cam and Marco had spent most of their time separated from Zalika and Jacek, in case one group needed

to back up the other. He’d managed to ask Zalika about how Cam usually traveled. She’d told him that if

Cam had someone she trusted to look over her, she’d take a sleeping pill and wake up refreshed and ready

to go once they reached their destination.

She’d yet to take any kind of sleeping aid, which made Marco wonder if she didn’t want to appear weak

in front of him again, or if she just didn’t trust him outside of the bedroom.

The thought of it being the latter grated at him.

They hit some turbulence, and Cam clenched her jaw. He decided she was being ridiculous. He leaned

toward her and growled. “Take your damn sleeping pill. You’ll be no use to anyone if you keep being

stubborn.”

She gave him a startled look. “How do you know I have sleeping pills?”

“I was tired of seeing you suffer for no reason, so I asked your friends for some help.”

She shook her head. “Anything could happen, and if I’m unconscious, that would be a huge liability. I’ll

survive this. I’ve done it before, you know.”

He kept his tone low. “What the hell are you trying to prove? I know you could sit through this and

suffer in silence. But, woman, seeing you do it for no reason upsets me. Take the fucking pill, and I’ll

watch over you. Unless you don’t trust me to keep you safe.”

Cam hesitated, and it was like a stab into his heart. He whispered, “You don’t trust me.”

She placed a hand on his arm. “No, it’s not a matter of trust.”

“Then what is it, Camilla? Because I don’t see any other explanation.” She bit her lip, and some of

Marco’s tension eased—Cam never bit her lip. He took her hand and said, “What is it? You can tell me.”

She looked away. “The last thing I want is for you to think I’m one of those clingy, needy women.”

He smiled. “Somehow, Camilla, I doubt that is possible.”

At his amused tone, she shot him a look. Good, her fire was back.

“Maybe I should become one, just to piss you off then.”

He squeezed her hand. “You’re deflecting. Tell me what’s wrong, because I’m not going to let you off

the hook, even if it takes me the entire plane ride to wheedle it out of you.”

She sighed. “And you would, too. Fine. Ever since I’ve woken up from the whole jumping-into-the-

ocean thing, whenever I try to close my eyes, I feel as if I’m back on that boat, helpless and weak.

Unless…”

He brushed her cheek. “Unless what?” She mumbled something he couldn’t hear, so he said, “Louder,

Camilla.”

She blurted out, “Unless I can feel you next to me. For reasons I can’t explain, your scent seems to calm

me.”

Marco blinked. He’d worried about her trusting him, and here she was, telling him he was the only thing

that helped chase away her nightmares.

He knew how hard that admission was for her, so for once he wasn’t going to tease her. Instead, he

raised the armrest between them. “Then come here and lean against me.”

She hesitated, and he had a feeling he knew why. “Denying a weakness is far more dangerous than

admitting one. If sleeping against me will help you get the strength you need for our upcoming visit, then do it. Seeing as I haven’t showered in nearly a day, there’s plenty of eau de Marco to chase away even your worst nightmares.”

Cam smiled, and he knew he had her. She eased against him and he pulled her close with his arm

before laying his head on top of hers. “Do you think you can sleep now, even without a sleeping pill?”

She nuzzled against his chest. “Yes, I think there’s enough eau de Marco to lull me to sleep.”

He chuckled. “Good girl. Now sleep, I’ll wake you when we’re about thirty minutes from landing.”

“Marco?”

“Yes, Camilla?”

Her voice was sleepy when she answered. “Thank you.”

He sat up and leaned his head against the seat. “Hush and go to sleep.”

She stilled and soon her breathing started to even out, telling him she was asleep.

He brushed her hair back with his free hand and studied her face as he thought about what she’d

admitted to him. Even though they’d only known each other a short time, she’d given him her trust both in

and out of the bedroom.

And considering all of the shit she’d gone through with her ex, he wasn’t about to take it for granted.

Cam mumbled something in her sleep and snuggled closer against him, if that were possible, and her

actions shifted something inside of him. It’d been a long time since he’d had a woman to look after. Too

long, in fact.

She’d given him something, so Marco decided he’d give her something in return. Once they landed and

were some place secure, he was going to tell her about the other Elemental Masters.

Cam suddenly appeared in the middle of an empty water park. Looking down, she noted the skimpy

bikini, and was grateful that no one was around to see it.

But while she could see the sun in the sky, she didn’t feel any warmth. Determined to find out why she
was half-naked at an empty water park, she started walking. When she passed a large jungle gym-like

structure standing in the middle of a shallow wading pool, she heard a unique whistle.

She looked over and noticed a woman in a bright pink bathing suit, her curly hair plastered against

her head as a large tub of water poured over her. Once the water stopped flowing, the woman climbed

down the structure and headed over to Cam.

When the woman was close enough, Cam said, “Neena, care to tell me why you decided to bring me to

a water park?”

Neena grinned. “Well, I needed to dream-speak with you, and I didn’t know how long you were going

to take to get here. So I decided to find a place to play and relax while I waited.”

Dream-speaking with Neena was old hat by now, so Cam knew to just push on and avoid distracting

her. “Just tell me what you need.”

Neena rung out her long hair. “For once a, ‘How are you Neena?’ or ‘I love the location you choose,

Neena’ would be fantastic. But I guess that’s asking too much.”

Cam shrugged. Arguing would only distract her.

“Fine,” Neena said. “What I need from you are images of the people you saw aboard the ship, the one

with the Collector’s people.”

She wondered how much Neena knew about the Collector. “Am I allowed to ask why? Or, maybe even,

what you know about her?”

“Well, the Collector is a recent thorn in my side, mostly because I can’t see her face in my visions. I’m
hoping I can use one of her people to lead me to her, hence, why I need the faces of the people you saw on
that ship.”

While Marco and her team had told Cam a little about the shadow-shifter and the Collector, she
wanted to know more. She chanced a question. “Why does DEFEND need to track down this Collector

woman?”

Neena gave her an impatient look. “Because she’s a pain in my arse, and I need to take care of it. Why
else?”

That didn’t tell her anything. Getting an answer out of Neena was close to impossible, but Cam was

going to try one more time. “But how is she a pain in your ass? Is she poaching future recruits or

something?”

Neena waved her hand in dismissal. “Enough chit-chat, I need you to concentrate and show me all of

the people you saw aboard that ship, and what happened.”

Great. When Neena said ‘no,’ then getting anything out of her was akin to banging your head against

the wall. It was best to give her what she wanted, and get the hell away as quickly as possible before she
asked for some kind of strange favor.

Cam had shared images with Neena before and knew the drill. She closed her eyes and recalled the

details of the man, woman, and ship captain. Once she had as many details as she could remember, she let
the events play out in her head. When Cam reached the part about jumping into the ocean, she opened

her eyes to see the last of her memories fade away. She didn’t know how Neena did it, but she could make
the memories recalled during one of her dream talks play on a free-floating movie screen in front of her.

Cam waited, and finally Neena said, “How positive are you that you saw the ship captain’s face flicker
for a moment, revealing a glimpse of pale skin?”

“I remember the flickering, but I just assumed it was related to my weakened state. You think it could
mean something else?”

“Possibly. But don’t worry yourself about it. I want you to focus on finding that Talent.”